joe dante

Making horror is challenging; making comedy is difficult. Making horror-comedy is an unenviable task. So many things can go wrong, because the balance is so delicate that the entire filmic house of cards can collapse in on itself with the slightest misstep.

Red Sea Media has made the smart move of picking up the distribution right to "Squirrels", a new film about a small town being terrorized by the fuzzy little nut munchers. Produced by the same folks that brought you "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" there's no word on a cast yet but I think if Tiffany is free she's a sure fire lock to play the leading lady. Keep your fingers crossed.

Mother of god. Warner Bros has picked up the rights to Ryan Gosling's directorial debut titled "How To Catch a Monster". Need more? Christina Hendricks has signed on as the leading lady for the film about a mother whose son discovers a secret road leading to the underworld. I swear to god my keyboard just burst into flames from all this sex.

Salma Hayek is confirmed to be starring in "Everly", a new film from the one and only Joe Lynch. The film is about a woman who must fight her way through a horde of assassins sent by her mob boss ex. What's the interesting point here is that the entire film will be shot in one room which now that I think of it makes me think this entire thing was just one big creepy way for Joe Lynch to be able to lock himself in a room with Selma Hayek for a month.

Joe Dante is teaming up with Simon Pegg for a big screen adaptation of "Casting the Runes" by M.R. James. The story follows a blogger who's investigating the suicide of a celebrity and the self help guru connected to the death. The story was originally written close to 100 years ago which is amazing because they didn't even have the internet back then so how the hell would anyone know what a blogger is? This James guy must have had ESPN or some crap.

Joe Dante is a name synonymous with horror and horror comedy. His credits include such well received genre films like "Gremlins", "The 'Burbs", "Piranha" and "The Howling". The other common thread among this quartet? They're 80s movies (ok Piranha was '78, but you get my point). And with "The Hole" Dante seems to be right back in his comfort zone using elements that could've worked in just about any form over the past 35 years.

Horror is a particularly cyclical genre of film. With the recent releases of films like "Grindhouse", "Black Dynamite", "Machete" and the announcement of "Hobo with a Shotgun", it would be a pretty fair statement to say that we're in the midst of a modern Grindhouse revival. Luckily for those of us looking for a history lesson, Netflix has recently added the documentary "American Grindhouse" to their Instant Stream. Featuring interviews with iconic Grindhouse stars/directors (including Joe Dante, John Landis, Herschell Gordan Lewis and Fred Williamson), "American Grindhouse" explores the original Grindhouse movement and should get any horror fan out there up to speed in time for the next modern Grindhouse release.

I have to admit, this entire time I thought Joe Dante’s “The Hole” was about… well, a hole. I thought kids find a hole in their house, they play in the hole and eventually grow tired of the hole. The hole gets sad that no one will play with it and eventually takes its own life.

"Evil Dead" is coming to theaters. Read that again. "Evil Dead" is coming back to theaters! That's right, the original movie, not a remake, is being brought back for a midnight run at select theaters across the country.